Slow Food Nation kicks off alfresco

Dinner Slow Food style, at the Victory Garden at San Francisco’s Civic Center.

From Food editor Miriam Morgan and staff writer Stacy Finz:

While Barack Obama was giving his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, 500 Slow Food Nation organizers, farmers, dairymen, ranchers, food producers and press broke bread in a private dinner at the Victory Garden at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza, with an illuminated City Hall dome as a backdrop.

Two tables, under strings of lights, stretched the length of the plaza, from Polk Street to Larkin. During the day, workers had erected the structures that will be the farmers’ market on Friday, with tented booths — more than 60 of them — labeled for the individual farms and producers.

Chronicle staff writer Stacy Finz and I were there to get a look — and taste — of the sort of event Slow Food Nation promises to be.

Kim Bayer

On the menu: chicken, potatoes and garden lettuces.

A Cajun trio fiddled and accordion-ed their way through the evening, while we ate a quintessential Slow Food meal — grilled Soul Food Farm chicken, spit-roasted Berkshire porchetta, potato and green bean salad, and garden lettuces.

It was a no-frills affair — wine was served in glass tumblers, plates were enamelware, and everyone was assigned a job — I channeled my inner server while Stacy pulled bussing duties. The “sommelier” at each table was responsible for making sure no one’s glass ever emptied.

We sat in the middle of the Utah Slow Food contingent, along with a former hog farmer from Iowa, a mushroom-grower and honey farmer from North Carolina, and winemakers from Woodland, all excited about being able to eat under the stars in San Francisco, without donning parkas and worrying about frostbite. We ran into Chronicle Food section contributor Georgeanne Brennan, who told us she had led a sold-out Slow Food tour of Yolo County during the day — 51 people, from several states and foreign countries, all here specifically for this four-day event.

Alice Waters, as expected, was the center of a crowd wherever she alighted, a TV crew shadowing her every move. In her welcome speech, she noted it was the 37th anniversary of Chez Panisse’s opening night. In all, an auspicious start to Slow Food Nation. We’ll see how things shake out from here.